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The purpose of this paper is to reveal the influence of social media in the development of brand sacralization in young consumers in emerging Asian market. Brand sacralization is the phenomenon where consumers (especially young) become an adherent of brands and consider brands as sacred entities. The paper specifically explores the influence of social media interaction and social media usability on brand sacralization and consequently its influence on online purchase intention (PI) and brand loyalty.

Perceptual responses were gathered from 232 undergraduate and postgraduate students (age: 17-27 years) studying in an Indian private university and is subsequently analyzed using structural equation modeling. The young population is chosen as the target sample as they possess majority stake in final product purchase decision nowadays and also contribute as a dominant consumer category in online market places.

The researcher found a strong positive influence of social media interaction and social media usability on brand sacralization. Further, brand sacralization is found to have a positive and significant influence on online PI and brand loyalty of young consumers. However, social media interaction does not contribute significantly to usability of social media. The researcher has also found a significant influence of brand loyalty on online PI for these young shoppers.

The study is the foremost to investigate the influence of social media in developing brand sacralization and its influence on online PI and brand loyalty. Further the study is the first to develop a measurement instrument for brand sacralization. The study is the foremost in developing measures for social media interaction and social media usability.

Despite a lot of agricultural initiatives by the government in a regionally diversified country like India, agriculture is poor, and farmer suicide cases are rampant. This study aims to socially transform and bring behavioural change among the farmers of southern India through the usage of new media. The research has gauged the factors that affect new media accessibility and usability, hindrances in the process and change of farmer’s behaviour through online social marketing bringing social transformation.

The study is action participatory in nature, and the data is triangulated by conducting a survey at the first level using the Delphi technique among 184 rural south Indian farmers who are smartphone users use new media, and at the next level, the farmers were requested to use WhatsApp for agricultural new sharing, and in the last stage, personal interview with entrepreneurs and farmers has been conducted to understand their new media adoption, e-learning and online social marketing.

New media is the best way to transform agricultural practices socially. It is a forum where all the farmers of the country can get together and address the issue of the agrarian crisis. Online social marketing (OSM) through WhatsApp is one of the best methods of behavioural change because different farmers can share their experiences and emotion for the crisis and give an appropriate solution to a problem. And, one of the most important features of OSM is it removes third parties from miscellaneous issues be it selling, buying or seeking and sharing information.

Despite trying to cover different hindrances in the way of social marketing of agriculture, the study is not free without its limitations. Language was a barrier, and this study require a lot of time to perceive the changes and adoption. Also, due to time constraint, the authors have categorically clubbed innovators, early adopters and early majority in the same layer opinion leaders and adopters of innovation. These could be analyzed separately in five layers, as suggested by Rogers (1995).

From the managerial perspective, the government should extend services that teach the agriculturists, farmers the use of new media. The marketers and makers of apps and software can tap into this business for launching products for farmers. We need apps designed only for farmers, where agricultural and farming practitioners all over the country and globe can interact about their products, conditions of agriculture and give solution to issues arising in agriculture and farming.

The researchers posit that there are hardly any studies that provide strategies to the agricultural and farming sectors in a regionally diversified country like India. The study is one of its first kind to propose new media strategies to reach out to the farmers of different regions and segmentation for a behavioural change and adoption of new media for better and sustainable agriculture. It has gauged into the factors that affect new media accessibility and usability among farmers and simultaneously gave strategy for behavioural change.

Tourism supply chains (SCs) are recently gaining importance and there is a dire need for empirical testing and theory development in allied areas. The current investigation aims to explore the importance of management learning, relationship development, shared vision, inter-firm integration and technology perception as essential management capabilities required for the development of dynamic capability of tourism SC agility. Furthermore, the study explores the agile influence on competitive advantage.

The study collected perceptual responses from 233 active participants and respondents in the tourism sector. The collected data were analyzed for the validity of the proposed relationships through partial least squares.

Findings suggest relationship development, shared vision, inter-firm integration and technology perception as significant enablers. Furthermore, tourism SC agility was found to enhance competitive advantage.

The study further advances theory development and empirical testing through extending the concept of agility to tourism SCs and examining its enablers. Furthermore, the study developed measured for the utilized enablers of tourism SC agility through appropriate development in tourism contexts.

With the emergence of COVID-19 and increased infections, organizations urged their employees to work from home. Furthermore, with the on-going pandemic, employees take measures to ensure individual safety and their families. Hence, work from home culture can result in long-term employee satisfaction. However, no study addresses the development of work from the home culture in an integrated framework. Therefore, the current research explores the role of safety during the pandemic, organizational commitment and employee motivation on work from home culture, which may influence employee satisfaction. Furthermore, job demands and home demands were also evaluated for employee satisfaction.

The study used existing scales of the factors to develop the measures and collect perceptual responses from employees working from home, supported with a pre-test. The study executed a survey with effective responses from 132 individuals spread across different sectors to validate the hypotheses. The responses were analysed using partial least squares in ADANCO 2.2.

Findings suggest safety concerns along with organization commitment enhances work from home culture. Such work from home culture enhances employee motivation and employee satisfaction. Furthermore, job demands and home demands also influence employee satisfaction.

To the best of the authors knowledge, the study is the foremost to develop an integrated empirical framework for work from home culture and its antecedents and consequences. The study has several important implications for managers.